Dye Free Birthday cake ( Dora)

My daughters birthday is sadly very stressful. This year was no exception but I made a promise that she would have a cake as pretty as everyone else's always were AND that it would be one that she could eat and enjoy without the affects of the artificial food coloring. This meant a completely dye free cake. I've done cupcakes before but I am not a baker. I had planned to have my friend ( the cake lady) bake a cake and I would go over and we would play with the icing and fondant and see what worked. A couple of days before our planned date I realized the marshmallow used for the fondant had dye in it. We then said we'd just do icing. I was okay with that until until my daughter asked me if I could make her cake. How do you, as a mom, say no to that? You don't. Again plans changed and I set out to make a cake worthy of my daughters 5 year birthday celebration. This years theme? Dora! We all know Dora. Yep, that Lil girl that runs around the jungle with a monkey and various other jungle friends and occasionally her cousin Diego. Together we looked at cakes online when she set her eyes on a Dora Princess cake where the cake is the dress. Perfect! I've actually done a Barbie cake like this for my oldest daughter. We can do this. I had the bath tub Dora that I was going to use but then found another one that I decided to use. We are well on our way now. We have the idea, the doll, and I picked up a few boxes of cake mix and some cake decorating essentials. Now to pick up our arsenal of natural dyes. I grab the beet roots as I use them for everything, then some purple cabbage. These should do it. I also grabbed some carrots, raspberries, and blueberries just in case. I arrive at my mother in laws to utilize her counter space and I get started. The first thing I do is mix and bake the dress part of the cake. I did this by pouring the mix into a well sprayed round Pyrex bowl. I then make a rectangle sheet cake for the bottom. While they bake I cut and boiled the purple cabbage. No seasoning( that will come later if you want use it for supper. We did). With the cabbage juice I made purple, blue, and surprisingly green. I drain the juice and cook it down in three pans until its just a few tablespoons of liquid. Watch carefully because it will cook out in just a second if not careful. I lost 3 pans to this fact. The one pot for purple we don't do anything to other than cook down. Its chemistry time now. To make the blue you cook it down and remove from heat and add a half teaspoon of baking soda. Stir and magically you now have a blue. I discovered the green on accident by trying to make blue. It wasn't thick enough so I cooked it some and it turned green! So to make green. Remember that last pot cooking? Add baking soda and then cook down. You should have green. Now we juice a beet root. It doesn't take much to make pink. The more you add the darker your color will be. Now we have our colors make our icing and add your colors. I wanted a really bright purple so I added the purple and a drop each of beet juice and blue cabbage juice(mixed with baking soda before cooking) I found that it's lots of trial and error and not being afraid to play with the colors. My daughter could not have been happier with the final result which meant this momma was happy too! Now for the reveal.

I found the pearls at Walmart. They are sixlet brand. Now cool and the perfect touch.

These are the cupcakes. I used each color and then mixed the left over icing to make a swirl affect.

I'm talking to you

Yes you! I don't know what you are at the moment but let me start by saying. Your mean and I do not like you. I feel like you have taken away my life, my quality of life, that is. You don't care about me. You suck the energy out of my body making me tired, exhausted and sleepy but you refuse to let me sleep. I can't sit or lay still because my body hurts so bad that the slightest prick, poke, or nudge is excruciating. I might be OK living with you but your like a bipolar pothead on crack. One day I feel fine. Another completely useless. One day I won't eat any thing all day and another you make me eat everything in sight and make me crave what's not. One day I can barely notice my heartbeat and others I'd swear I took a handful of yellow jackets or something. One day I feel like you make me mad at everything and on others I just want to curl up in bed and cry. Can't you just make up your mind? I've come to the conclusion that you are not depression or anxiety even though you make me fell depressed and anxious at times. Its not in my head. Sure when i forget what the stove is called, I feel crazy. I feel it again when i forget to get the kids a drink after they've asked me a third time. You make me physically sick. I don't think your new either. I feel like you've been hiding inside for a long time. Was it you that would give me chills during the 100 degree band practice. Do you know how crazy I felt huddled by the fence with a friends jacket while everyone else is sweating and praying for rain? Are you the reason I dreaded that time of the month? The fact that I had twice as many times of the month than other girls and why my iron was also so low. I still feel like others think its in my head and don't understand. I also don't feel like you are  spiritual battle going on. If so you'd have been gone long ago. I'm not a weak nobody seeking attention. I'm a strong willed Momma that's going to find out what you are and kick you out of my body so don't get comfortable.